Culturing of cells of various types has become a routine process in many laboratories. Tissue culture is conducted on scales ranging from multiwell microplates involving only a few cells to large reactors having billions of cells.
There are several types of vessels used in laboratory settings for size scale-ups or cell culturing systems. These vessels are stationary flasks and roller bottles. The vessels are charged with growth media, seeded with cells and placed in incubation chambers with suitable environments for the particular cells being grown, which may include an atmosphere altered from ambient air. Additionally, in many culture systems there is a need to allow the vessel to vent gas emitted by the cultured cells so that it may equilibrate with the chamber atmosphere.
The need to allow equilibration between the vessel and the chamber is addressed in several ways. Since many vessels have necks with screw caps, one solution is simply to leave the caps ajar which allows gas interchange. While this technique allows gas interchange, it may also allow microbial contamination of the culture system.
The need for gas exchange between culture vessels and incubation chamber atmosphere was recognized in U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,347 which discloses a gas impermeable culture flask with provisions for gas permeation. The disclosure includes a cap for a vessel including a gas permeable insert and a hinged cover to close the gas cap for a vessel including a gas permeable insert and a hinged cover to close the gas permeable insert. The disclosure also includes a culture vessel with a sidewall port having a gas permeable insert having a cover. Vessels incorporating the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,347 with a side port are complex to manufacture and thus are not widely used. Vessels with caps following the teachings of this patent may be of standard design, but the caps must be removed for access to the contents, an operation which may disturb the growing cells.
As cell culture programs are scaled up, a laboratory may conduct multiple vessels of a particular culture. These cultures may require periodic removal or changing of the fluids in the vessel on a regular basis. If a cell culture vessel closure system were available which included provisions for venting, closure and one handed operation, the time for the transfers and the amount of disruption to the growing cells would be minimized. The present invention is such a closure device.